Committee publication · Report · 14 July 2026 · HC 207
1st Report – The UK’s development partnership with Nigeria
From: International Development Committee
Inquiry: The UK’s development partnership with Nigeria
Government response deadline: 14 September 2026
Summary
The International Development Committee examines the UK's November 2024 strategic partnership with Nigeria, examining whether targeted support, technical assistance and trade can help Nigeria modernise its economy, reduce humanitarian need, and increase stability. The report finds the partnership strategically sound but warns that without a comprehensive, long-term integrated approach addressing interconnected humanitarian, security, governance and climate challenges, mutual benefits will not be realised.
Key findings
- Nigeria faces a worsening humanitarian crisis: 30 million food-insecure, 3.5 million internally displaced, 3.5 million children with severe acute malnutrition, and 34.7 million projected to need food assistance in 2026 lean season—the most severe on record.
- UK bilateral ODA to Nigeria has declined from £327 million in 2017–18 to £135 million in 2025–26; bilateral ODA cut by 37%, yet FCDO country allocations remain unpublished, hampering strategic planning and scrutiny.
- Funding cuts have severely damaged humanitarian capacity: UN agencies halving operations, 62% of women-led organisations suspending services, displacement monitoring systems closed, and displacement figures out of date since October 2024.
- The partnership's success depends on addressing interconnected drivers of instability (extremism, banditry, farmer-herder conflict, climate shocks) through integrated humanitarian-development-security approaches, not fragmented interventions.
- FCDO team in Nigeria praised as 'groundbreaking' and among UK's strongest; witnesses urge against defunding or dismantling it despite pressure to reduce spending.
Recommendations
- The Department must commit to aligning announcement of new approaches and strategies with release of spending plans to generate confidence and transparency.
- The FCDO must develop a clear monitoring framework for assessing implementation of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in Nigeria, including proportion of integrated programmes, multi-sector funding allocation, civil society participation, displacement indicators, and preventive vs emergency spending balance; report progress within six months and annually.
- The Government must detail steps it is taking to assist the Nigerian Government to assume responsibility for meeting its own humanitarian need.
- Within six months, the FCDO should share funding and programming details for humanitarian and conflict monitoring, displacement tracking and early-warning systems across Nigeria, including integration of data into wider programming.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Minister of State for International Development and Africa), Yvette Cooper (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs), Arjun Jain (UNHCR Country Representative for Nigeria), Cynthia Rowe (Head of Development Co-operation, British High Commission Abuja), Tom Fletcher (UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs), Sarah Champion (Committee Chair, Labour MP Rotherham), Thierno Samba Diallo (Country Director, Action Against Hunger Nigeria), Dr Muhammad Pate (Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Nigeria)
Notable line
“If the Government does not present a more wide-ranging and strategic plan to assist Nigeria in achieving significant reductions in humanitarian need, displacement and instability, there is very little chance that it will reap the desired mutual benefits of the strategic partnership.”
Key Quotes
“I do not think we have any choice about being engaged in a deep way with Nigeria, given our historical connections and the people-to- people links.”
“There is a willingness to engage. There is competence, and growing capability. They have expertise in Government, and they are reaching out and want to work in partnership.”
“May I add that the FCDO team here is quite brilliant? You have a really good team here. During the many crises of this year, your high commissioner has really helped hold us together, worked with us to identify some of the challenges that we are facing, and been guiding us through a very difficult time, making interventions with the Government as and where possible.”
“I think this is probably one of the strongest teams that we have in the network. I think the work that they are doing is groundbreaking, innovative and impactful.”
“… the correlation between the reduction in funding, malnutrition rates and extremism and terrorism is "quite strong" and getting worse.”
“… this means that the UK Government say one thing but do another with the aid pot.”
“… most likely you will see a massive displacement crisis, which will only increase [ … ] A previous speaker spoke about people joining armed and insurgent groups, and I think that that is quite evident in situations of extreme poverty. We will also see people move across the border and create regional instability.”
“People in the northern states that have borders with other countries find ways to escape to Libya and find their way to Europe. That has implications for Europe, of course, including the UK.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗